AFIO Weekly Intelligence Notes #18-09 dated 19 May 2009

Section I - INTELLIGENCE HIGHLIGHTS

Defense Department Official Charged With Espionage Conspiracy. A Defense Department official has been charged with conspiracy to communicate classified information to an agent of a foreign government.

A criminal alleges that, from approximately Nov. 2004 to Feb. 11, 2008, James Wilbur Fondren, Jr., while serving as an employee of the Defense Department, unlawfully and knowingly conspired with others to communicate classified information to another person who he had reason to believe was an agent or representative of a foreign government.

Fondren, 62, worked at the Pentagon and is the Deputy Director, Washington Liaison Office, U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM). He has been on administrative leave with pay since mid-February 2008 and has not performed any duties in or for PACOM since that time. If convicted, he faces a maximum five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.

"The complaint unsealed alleges that Mr. Fondren conspired to steal our nation's secrets for a foreign government, placing his own interests over those of the citizens he served as a U.S. Government employee," said Executive Assistant Director Arthur M. Cummings, II, FBI National Security Branch. "These charges are the result of the investigative efforts of the FBI's Washington Field Office, with the invaluable assistance of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. Espionage is a profoundly serious crime, and the FBI will continue to work with our law enforcement and intelligence community partners to ensure the protection of our nation's most sensitive information." 

According to an affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint, Fondren retired from active duty as a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force in May 1996. In approximately Feb. 1998, he began providing consulting services from his Virginia home. Fondren's sole client for his business was a friend by the name of Tai Shen Kuo. Kuo was a naturalized U.S. citizen from Taiwan who lived primarily in Louisiana and maintained business interests in the United States and the People's Republic of China (PRC). Kuo also maintained an office in the PRC.

In August 2001, Fondren became a civilian employee at PACOM at the Pentagon, where he was again granted a security clearance by the government. He held a Top Secret security clearance, worked in a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, and had a classified and unclassified computer at his cubicle. Even after he began working at PACOM in 2001, Fondren continued to provide consulting services for Kuo.

Unbeknownst to Fondren, Kuo worked under the direction of a PRC government official. This PRC official provided Kuo with detailed instructions to collect certain documents and information from Fondren and other U.S. government officials, including Gregg William Bergersen, a former Weapons Policy Analyst at the Arlington, Va.-based Defense Security Cooperation Agency in the Defense Department. The PRC official paid Kuo approximately $50,000 for completing those tasks. 

Kuo introduced the PRC official to Fondren in approximately March 1999, describing him to Fondren as a political researcher and consultant to the PRC government. Fondren maintained periodic email correspondence with the PRC official until at least March 2001. While Fondren was aware of Kuo's relationship with the PRC official, he was not aware of the PRC official's precise status with the PRC government nor of his coded requests to Kuo to obtain information from Fondren. 

According to the affidavit, the PRC official instructed Kuo to mislead Fondren into believing that he was providing information to Kuo for Taiwan military officials. Nevertheless, Fondren was aware that Kuo was providing Fondren's information to an agent of a foreign government, the affidavit alleges.

According to the affidavit, between Nov. 2004 and Feb. 11, 2008, Fondren provided Kuo with certain Defense Department documents and other information, some of which Fondren obtained from classified online systems available to him by virtue of his employment at the Pentagon. Fondren incorporated Defense Department information, including classified information, into "opinion papers" that he sold to Kuo for between $350 and $800 apiece through Fondren's home-based consulting business. Eight of the "papers" Fondren sold to Kuo contained classified information. Fondren also provided Kuo with sensitive, but unclassified Defense Department publications.

According to the affidavit, Fondren allegedly provided Kuo with a variety of sensitive data, including classified information from a State Department cable, classified information about a PRC military official's U.S. visit, classified information about a joint U.S.-PRC naval exercise, and classified information regarding U.S.-PRC military meetings. In one instance, Fondren provided Kuo with a draft Defense Department report on the PRC military and stated to Kuo: "This is the report I didn't want you to talk about over the phone....Let people find out I did that, it will cost me my job."

On Feb. 11, 2008, Kuo and former Defense Department employee, Gregg William Bergersen, were arrested on espionage charges. On the day of his arrest, Kuo was staying as a guest in Fondren's Virginia home and had among his possessions a draft, unclassified copy of a Defense Department document entitled "The National Military Strategy of the United States of America 2008." Fondren was interviewed by the FBI and later admitted that he gave the draft National Military Strategy report to Kuo.

On March 31, 2008, Bergersen pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of Virginia to conspiracy to disclose U.S. national defense information to persons not entitled to receive it. Bergersen admitted that, between March 2007 and February 2008, he provided national defense information to Kuo, much of it pertaining to U.S. military sales to Taiwan and classified as Secret. Bergersen was later sentenced to 57 months in prison. 

On May 13, 2008, Kuo pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of Virginia to conspiracy to deliver national defense information to a foreign government, namely the PRC. Kuo admitted that he had cultivated a friendship with Bergersen, bestowing on him gifts, cash payments, dinners, and money for gambling trips to Las Vegas. Kuo admitted that he had obtained national defense information from Bergersen and that he had sent it on to the PRC government official. Kuo was later sentenced to 188 months in prison.

On May 28, 2008, Yu Xin Kang, an accomplice of Kuo from New Orleans who was arrested on the same day as Kuo and Bergersen, pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of Virginia to aiding and abetting an unregistered agent of the PRC. Kang admitted that she assisted Kuo by periodically serving as a conduit for the delivery of information from Kuo to the PRC government official. Kang was later sentenced to 18 months in prison.

This investigation was conducted by the FBI's Washington Field Office. The Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) provided substantial assistance and cooperation throughout the course of the investigation. The prosecution is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Neil Hammerstrom, from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Trial Attorney Ryan Fayhee from the Counterespionage Section of the Justice Department's National Security Division. [EarthTimes/13May2009] 

Woman in Rendition Case Sues for Immunity. A former American official charged with kidnapping in Italy in the 2003 seizure of a radical Muslim cleric filed a lawsuit on Wednesday seeking to force the State Department to invoke diplomatic immunity to halt the prosecution.

Italian prosecutors have claimed that the former official, Sabrina De Sousa, 53, was a C.I.A. officer serving under diplomatic cover in the United States Consulate in Milan at the time the cleric, known as Abu Omar, was grabbed on the street by American counterterrorism officers.

He was flown to Egypt, where he later contended that he was tortured. The case became a symbol of the American practice of rendition, in which a terrorism suspect is captured and delivered to another country for interrogation.

In the lawsuit, filed in United States District Court in Washington, and in an interview, Ms. De Sousa described herself as a diplomat and denied that she had worked for the Central Intelligence Agency. A spokesman for the agency declined to comment on Ms. De Sousa or her lawsuit, but former agency officials said that she had worked for the C.I.A. in Italy.

The lawsuit asks the court to order the government to invoke diplomatic immunity, provide her with legal counsel in Italy and pay her legal bills and other costs associated with the case.

Italian investigators found Ms. De Sousa's phone number in the cellphone of a C.I.A. officer involved in the rendition, and she was among 25 alleged C.I.A. officers and one American military officer indicted in the case in 2006. In lurid Italian news accounts, Ms. De Sousa has been described as "Sabrina the tiger, with stiletto heels and fists of steel" and as the case's Mata Hari.

But she insists that she played no role in the episode, which occurred in February 2003. In fact, Ms. De Sousa said, she had been skiing with friends at the time, and she showed a reporter for The New York Times credit card bills from that time for ski rental and a hotel in Madonna di Campligio, 130 miles from Milan.

Ms. De Sousa, who grew up in India and became a naturalized American citizen in 1985, said that most of her family lived overseas and that since the indictment government officials had strongly advised her not to travel abroad for fear of arrest or other legal complications. She said she resigned from government service in February because she felt torn between the government's instructions and her desire to visit her family.

Ms. De Sousa called it "inexplicable" that the government had not invoked diplomatic immunity.

State Department officials declined to comment, noting that the case is at a highly sensitive stage. In March, Italy's Constitutional Court ruled that Italian prosecutors had violated state secrecy in gathering evidence in the case, and it is uncertain whether the prosecution will continue.

But the State Department officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, that they had been very active and "are pursuing every avenue to try to bring this case to a satisfactory resolution." They noted that most of the alleged officers charged in the rendition were not under diplomatic cover and would not qualify for immunity.

Legal experts said that intelligence officers serving under diplomatic cover often claim immunity when facing criminal charges overseas. But Curtis A. Bradley, a Duke law professor specializing in international law, cautioned that "consular immunity," the category that presumably would apply to Ms. De Sousa, was limited by treaty to "acts performed in the exercise of consular functions."

Mr. Bradley said the rendition might not qualify under that definition, suggesting that pressing the immunity issue might not automatically free Ms. De Sousa from the prosecution. [Shane/NewYorkTimes/14May2009] 

Former FBI Agent Gets Probation in Hollywood Spy Case. A former FBI agent was sentenced to one year of probation for illegally accessing bureau computers to help high-profile Los Angeles private investigator Anthony Pellicano in his trial on wiretapping and racketeering charges.

Mark T. Rossini, 47, told U.S. Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola in the District's federal court that he was "so profoundly and deeply ashamed and remorseful" for his conduct. Facciola also ordered Rossini, who served on the FBI for 17 years before resigning, to pay a $5,000 fine.

The former agent pleaded guilty in December to making more than 40 illegal searches of bureau computers in 2007 to get information for personal purposes. Most of those searches related to the Pellicano case, federal prosecutors said.

Rossini didn't participate in that investigation but was dating the actress Linda Fiorentino, known for her role in "The Last Seduction." Fiorentino had a previous relationship with Pellicano and wanted to help him, law enforcement officials have said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tejpal S. Chawla wrote in court papers that in January 2007 Rossini gave a report about the Pellicano case to a person identified by Chawla in court records as "X," though it is obvious that "X" is Fiorentino.

Fiorentino then gave that document to an attorney for Pellicano, who used the report to accuse prosecutors of withholding evidence from the defense team, law enforcement officials have said. It turned out that prosecutors had already given that report to the judge, who ruled it did not have to be turned over to defense lawyers.

Chawla asked Facciola to sentence Rossini to five years of probation, saying "this was a very serious breach of security by a seasoned FBI agent."

Rossini, who declined to comment after the hearing, is living in New Orleans, where he is working with at-risk youth, said his attorney, Adam Hoffinger. Hoffinger declined to comment on the status of Rossini's relationship with Fiorentino.

Pellicano was convicted by a federal jury in Los Angeles of conspiring to run a criminal enterprise that employed illegal wiretaps to dig up dirt on the rich and famous on behalf of his elite Hollywood clients. He was sentenced in December to 15 years in prison. [Wilbur/WashingtonPost/14May2009] 

Bangladesh Arrests Two Former Intelligence Chiefs. Bangladesh arrested two former chiefs of an intelligence agency for involvement in smuggling of weapons and ammunition into the country five years ago, police said.

Retired Brigadier-General Abdur Rahim and retired Major-General Rezakul Haider Chowdhury, former chiefs of National Security Intelligence (NSI), were picked up from their Dhaka homes.

Police seized 10 trucks loaded with sophisticated automatic weapons and ammunition near Chittagong port in April 2004. The trucks were taken soon after the cache was unloaded from a local vessel.

Rahim and Chowdhury were arrested after a former officer of NSI made a statement before a court last week that he had engaged the trucks following an order of the then NSI boss.

No further details were immediately available.

Rahim and Chowdhury served as the chiefs of NSI consecutively under the government of then Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia.

Chowdhury succeeded Rahim, but was removed when an army-backed interim government took charge in January 2007.

Police said the arms had been unloaded initially from a merchant vessel that had carried them to near the outer anchorage of Chittagong port from an unknown destination. [Ahmed/Reuters/16May2009] 

Espionage Scandal in Colombian Government. The scandal Colombian President Alvaro Uribe is facing concerning holding illegal meetings with judges, politicians, journalists and ex public officials has cast a shadow over the government, inside and outside of the country.

The Colombian society is demanding truth on all fronts around illegal acts and espionage committed by the Department of Administrative Security (DAS), an entity directly subordinate to the President.

The scandal became bigger after the ex chief of DAS Jorge Lagos confessed in several meetings in the executive headquarters that he kept track of judges movement.

In addition, there are allegations by former members of the secret police that candidates of previous presidential campaigns were constantly followed by intelligence bodies.

The former officials are remaining anonymous due to fears for their safety. [InsideCostaRica/17May2009] 

Novato Man Gets 17-Month Term for Exports to Iran. A Novato businessman was sentenced to 17 months in federal prison for conspiring to export aircraft parts to Iran in violation of a U.S. embargo.

Hassan Saied Keshari, 49, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Patricia Seitz in Miami, where he has been in custody since his arrest last year.

The judge placed Keshari at a federal prison in Herlong, a Lassen County town about 60 miles north of Lake Tahoe, so he could be closer to his young children. He has two daughters, 5 and 13 years old.

Keshari, owner of Kesh Air International in Bel Marin Keys, was arrested last June with Florida businessman Traian Bujduveanu. Keshari and Bujduveanu, who owns Orion Aviation Corp. near Fort Lauderdale, were charged with conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the United States Iran Embargo and the Arms Export Control Act.

Authorities said Keshari and Bujduveanu were arranging shipments of U.S.-made aircraft parts to Iran since 2006, working through an intermediary in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The aircraft equipment allegedly included parts for the CH-53 military helicopter, the F-14 Tomcat fighter jet and the AH-1 attack helicopter.

Keshari was denied bail because authorities considered him a flight risk. Although he has been a naturalized U.S. citizen for 30 years and owns properties in Novato, he is a native of Tehran with an Iranian passport and family in that country.

Keshari pleaded guilty in January to one count of conspiracy, and10 other counts were dismissed. He could have faced 20 years in prison under the original charges.

Bujduveanu, 54, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in April, according to Reuters. His sentencing is pending. [Klien/Marinij/15May2009] 

Egypt Reportedly Arrests Iranian Intelligence Cell On Its Soil. The Lebanese daily Al-Mustaqbal reports that in December 2008, Egyptian authorities arrested four Iranian nationals belonging to the Al-Qods Brigades of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) who had established an Iranian intelligence network in Egypt.

According to the report, the four said that Al-Qods commander Qassem Suleimani had ordered them to spread Shi'ism in Egypt, to form relationships with tribes in the Sinai, and to wage a pro-Iran propaganda campaign.

In response to a grave warning sent by Egypt against more such incidents, Iran acknowledged that the four belong to Iranian intelligence, and demanded their release in exchange for the release of six Egyptian nationals arrested by Iranian militias in Iraq. [AlMustaqbal/15May2009] 

North Korea Indicts U.S. Reporters Euna Lee and Laura Ling. The two American journalists from Current TV, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, who were arrested in North Korea on March 17th, are now facing trial in early June. The women have been indicted on charges of illegally entering the country and for committing "hostile acts." They had been working an assignment about the Tumen River on the Chinese and North Korean border, which is used by North Korean refugees fleeing their homeland. The details of their arrest are mired in controversy, as there is ambiguity as to whether or not they had illegally crossed the North Korean border.

According to the South Korean network YTN and the Taipei Times, North Korean guards crossed the Tumen River into Chinese territory to kidnap Ling and Lee. However, the North Korean news agency KCNA, claims the reporters were arrested on North Korean territory. "Our related agency has decided to turn the U.S. reporters over for trial based on findings of their crimes," KCNA reported. Although the North Korean government has not stated what charges it will press, the Associated Press has reported that the journalists could receive up to five years in prison if convicted of espionage.

Since the 1990s, at least three Americans have been held by North Korea and all were eventually released after negotiations. This has led observers to speculate that the regime of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il intends to use Lee and Lang as bargaining chips to gain aid or other concessions. [Kim/AllGov/16May2009] 

US Spy Chief Holds Secret Talks to Stop Israel Bombing Iran. Leon Panetta, Director of the CIA, has held secret talks in Israel with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and Ehud Barak, the defense minister. According to the public radio report, Mr. Panetta arrived in Israel two weeks ago for a round of talks with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and Ehud Barak, the defence minister.

Discussions with other top officials also took place.

The talks focused on Iran's nuclear programme, which the United States and Israel suspect is aimed at developing an atom bomb, a claim denied by Tehran.

The Israeli leaders assured Mr. Panetta that "Israel does not intend to surprise the US on Iran".

President Barack Obama's decision to engage Tehran in direct talks in an effort to end the nuclear standoff has raised concern in Israel which called on the negotiations to be limited in time and accompanied by tough sanctions.

Israel nevertheless refuses to remove the option of taking military action against the Islamic republic.

Mr. Netanyahu has said that Iran's nuclear ambitions posed an "existential threat" to the Jewish state. [Telegraph/14May2009] 

U.S. to Share Terrorism Intel with Korean Troops. Korean military units overseas may be getting real-time intelligence on terrorism gathered by the United States. A source familiar with the matter told the Yonhap news agency that military officials are discussing ways to share information put together by the U.S. National Geospatial Intelligence Agency and the CIA with Korean troops.

The source stressed the need for Korea to gain access to detailed data the U.S. is believed to have, saying Korean peacekeeping forces such as the Cheonghae unit in the Gulf of Aden are operating in dangerous environments. [Chosun/18May2009] 

Section II - CONTEXT & PRECEDENCE

Top 10 Real Life Spy Gadgets. With the news that MI5 is looking for a Chief Scientific Adviser, spy novelist Jeremy Duns reveals his ten favorite real espionage inventions.

1. Poison-tipped umbrella. Probably the most infamous real-life spy gadget is the umbrella used by the Bulgarian secret services - with KGB help - to kill dissident writer and broadcaster Georgi Markov. KGB technicians converted the tip of an ordinary umbrella into a silenced gun that could fire a pellet containing a lethal dose of ricin. On September 7, 1978, Markov felt himself being jabbed in the thigh as he walked across Waterloo Bridge. A man behind him apologized and stepped into a taxi. Markov died four days later. No arrests have ever been made.

2. Dart gun. It wasn't just Soviet bloc spies who used such techniques, though. In a 1975 US Senate hearing on intelligence, CIA director William Colby handed the committee's chairman a gun developed by his researchers. Equipped with a telescopic sight, it could accurately fire a tiny dart - tipped with shellfish toxin or cobra venom - up to 250 feet. Colby claimed that, as far as he knew, this and other weapons had never been used, but he couldn't entirely rule out the possibility.

3. Compass buttons. During the war, the Special Operations Executive - 'Churchill's secret army' - created a wealth of Q-like devices. One ingenious invention was magnetized trouser buttons, which were to be used for agents who became lost - if they were taken prisoner, for example. By cutting off the buttons and balancing them on each other, they turned into compasses.

4. Exploding briefcase. Another SOE invention was a briefcase designed to hold sensitive documents, but which would act as a booby trap for any enemy agent trying to open it the wrong way. If the right-hand lock was held down and simultaneously pushed to the right, the briefcase would click open safely; otherwise, the left-hand lock would ignite.

5. Exploding rats. If exploding briefcases weren't enough, the SOE boffins created something even more outlandish to battle the Nazis - exploding rats. Developed in 1941, the devices used the skins of real rats, with fuses concealed inside. The idea was to use them to blow up German boilers, but they were quickly discovered and so never put into production.

6. Cigarette-case gun. In 1954, Soviet agent Nicolai Khokhlov was sent to Frankfurt to assassinate an anti-Communist leader. But Khokhlov had a last-minute attack of nerves and instead defected to the Americans. The Americans wasted no time in showing the world press the would-be assassin's equipment, which included a gold cigarette case that concealed an electrically operated gun capable of firing cyanide-tipped bullets. In Ian Fleming's novel From Russia With Love, fearsome assassin Red Grant tells his masters at SMERSH that they gave Khokhlov's job to the wrong man: "I wouldn't have gone over to the Yanks."

7. Hollowed-out lighter. In 1960, MI5 broke up a ring of KGB spies, at the center of which were two Americans, Morris and Lona Cohen. The Cohens lived in a bungalow in Ruislip under cover as antiquarian booksellers Peter and Helen Kroger. But when MI5 searched the bungalow, they discovered an astonishing array of spy paraphernalia, including a cigarette lighter made by Ronson (the same brand as favored by James Bond), inside which was hidden several one-time cipher pads. These were printed on cellulose nitrate and impregnated with zinc oxide so they would be easy to burn, thus destroying the evidence. But the Cohens weren't quick enough, and they served eight years in prison.

8. Wallet document camera. Most intelligence agencies want to recruit people with access to top-secret material, but once recruited they still have to photograph the documents you're after. If the security is too tight to remove documents from the premises, one way of doing this is to smuggle in a camera. During the Cold War, the KGB developed several disguised cameras, including one that looked just like a small leather pocket wallet - the edge of it was rolled against a document to expose the film. In the Sixties, signals intelligence technician Douglas Britten was blackmailed by the KGB into using one of these to photograph material at RAF Digby. But Britten was in turn photographed by MI5 at the Soviet Consulate in London, and when confronted pleaded guilty to treason.

9. Microphone in an olive. Also in the Sixties, American private detective Hal Lipset became famous when he demonstrated an unusual bugging device at a Senate subcommittee on surveillance: a miniature microphone hidden inside a (fake) olive. Perfect for placement inside a vodka Martini, the toothpick acted as an antenna. The range was short - about thirty feet - but Lipset's show convinced the Senate to toughen the laws on recording people without their consent.

10. Rock bug. These days bugs can act as cameras, 'reading' digital documents and communicating in other ways. But however hi-tech espionage becomes, it seems intelligence agencies still can't resist gadgetry. In 2006, Russian television claimed it had footage of British embassy officials transmitting information via a receiver disguised as a rock in a Moscow street. The British government denied the claim. [Dun/TimesOnline11May2009] 

Even in Custody, Abu Omar Baghdadi Proves Elusive. Will the real Abu Omar al Baghdadi please stand up? (If you actually exist, that is.)

For the last three weeks, the Iraqi government has been trumpeting its capture of Baghdadi, the leader of Al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and one of the country's most wanted terrorists.

But it turns out there may be at least two people using the same nom de guerre.

Over in Anbar province, authorities say they have been hunting a different Baghdadi. "Wanted" pictures of that suspect, a bald man, are posted at checkpoints across Anbar, where the Islamic State of Iraq was founded in 2006.

Iraqi government officials say the man they are holding has confessed to being Baghdadi. Pictures they released clearly show a different man, one with hair.

Sheik Ali Hatem Sulaiman, who heads the Dulaim tribe in Anbar and is a founder of the Awakening movement that fought Sunni insurgents there, believes the central government has the wrong man.

"They are talking nonsense," he said of the claims. "The security forces are always making mistakes in which they confuse people. The real Abu Omar al Baghdadi is bald, while this man has hair."

But what if they both have their man?

Because Abu Omar al Baghdadi is a nom de guerre, it is entirely possible that two men have been using the same name, Anbar Police Chief Gen. Tariq Yusuf said.

"Maybe there are two of them, in order to confuse the security services," he said. Anbar police are confident their suspect is the right man, he said, because of evidence they came across at an Al Qaeda hide-out last year.

The man in custody "is a terrorist," Yusuf said. "But there might be Abu Omar al Baghdadi No. 1 and Abu Omar al Baghdadi No. 2."

Government officials could not be reached for comment. But several previous claims that they have captured Baghdadi and other top leaders have turned out to be false.

In one instance two years ago, the government announced it had killed Baghdadi, only for the U.S. military to reveal that the dead man was another militant slain a few days earlier by U.S. troops. Iraqi soldiers got the corpse after it had been released for funeral services.

The government's claims to be holding the real Baghdadi were dented somewhat this week by the release of an audiotape in which a man claiming to be Baghdadi insists he is still free.

U.S. officials have not been given access to the detained man, and the U.S. still has "no operational reporting that confirms the capture or arrest" of Baghdadi, the military says.

In any case, the U.S. has said it's not even sure Baghdadi exists.

After the Iraqi government announced its first Baghdadi "coup" back in 2007, U.S. Army officials offered a different scenario: Baghdadi was a fictional character, played by an actor, to give an Iraqi face to a foreign terrorist group. [LATimes/15May2009] 

Ploughing the Sand of Russian National Security. Russia has now approved a long-awaited new national security concept. It incorporates eye-catching language about the protection of human rights and democracy, contains an unspoken threat to foreign NGOs, and apparently extends a cautious hand of friendship to the Barack Obama administration. But it will have little impact on how Russia's security services do their jobs, and says very little on concrete subjects.

Russia's Security Council finally released the approved version of the national security strategy on Wednesday, following months of delays. The finished 7,000-word document was immediately seized by journalists and experts for analysis, and they have noted three things - the language is conspicuously democratic (despite a veiled threat to NGOs), vague enough to leave room for both cooperation and confrontation with the United States, and it will have next to no impact on how the security services actually work.

The council had been working on a new security strategy since last August, when in the wake of the Georgian war President Dmitry Medvedev asked it to elaborate a replacement to the strategy developed in 2000 for former-President Vladimir Putin's administration. A draft had been prepared by December, but its endorsement was delayed at first until March and then again when a meeting of the Security Council chaired by Medvedev decided to allow time for new amendments to be inserted in the text.

Although at the time the Interfax news agency quoted a source within the Security Council denying it, it is widely thought that the main reason for this delay was actually the change of administration in the United States (the Security Council met on March 25 - days before Medvedev's first meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama). Alexander Nekipelov, the vice president of the Russian Academy of Sciences and one of the authors of the document, told the Kommersant daily that the committee had "taken into account the United States and the changes that have occurred there."

The paper speaks about resisting NATO expansion and the identification of the main military threat to Russia as "the policy of a number of leading foreign countries aimed at achieving a dominant advantage in the military field through the formation of a unilateral global system of missile defense and the militarization of space." This document comes as confirmation, as if any were needed, that Russia's security establishment still considers the United States the number one adversary.

That makes the conciliatory elements (and there are some - the document echoed Obama's sentiments about the desirability of "moving toward a world free of nuclear weapons," and talks about Russian willingness to collaborate with NATO "as equal partners") doubly welcome. But they are not surprising, and nor are many of the other listed threats. The activities of "foreign special services and organizations," the threat of economic turbulence - which took pride of place in the previous strategy drawn up in 2000 - and the "defense of the state" against terrorism and extremism are staples of Russian security policy. "To be frank, I think it is just the same. We have seen the same things for the past four or five years," said Andrei Soldatov, an independent security analyst and editor of the Agentura Web site.

According to Soldatov, the interesting aspect is not so much the security issues the strategy raises as how it talks about them. The way the document is drawn up manages to make it both vaguer than its predecessor and to subtly shift the order of priorities. "In the previous document you could find a special paragraph listing threats to national security, and that was important because you could see an order of priority. And the economic situation was listed as number one," said Soldatov. In the new text there is no single paragraph that lists all the threats.

The new document comes to such a list is in the second paragraph ("State and Domestic Security"), and the first threat mentioned is that of "intelligence and other activities of foreign special services, organizations and individuals to the detriment of the security of the Russian Federation."

That is not only surprising because it seems to displace the priority given to economic threats, which in the current climate would be more pressing than ever (to be fair, "economic growth" is deemed significant enough to warrant its own paragraph). It also puts foreign espionage ahead of terrorism, extremism and drug trafficking. And, said Soldatov, the mention of "foreign organizations," as well as "special services" suggests that NGOs are at least as dangerous as foreign spies (that, however, is not new either. Russian politicians, including Putin himself, have long accused NGOs of acting as front organizations for foreign (i.e. Western) intelligence services).

This has left analysts scratching their heads. Apart from a residual fear of "colored revolutions," which at one point was undoubtedly a priority of the Kremlin, there seem to be few genuine policy issues to justify it. It may have something to do with personal opinion - the current secretary of the Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, had a long career in counter intelligence and is a former director of the FSB. Independent observers tend to see the document as the product of competitive lobbying by elements within the security establishment - "giving priority to the threat of foreign espionage is a kind of guarantee of resources for the FSB, which is responsible for this kind of job," noted Soldatov.

And confusing the issue further is the appearance of vast tracts about the importance of human rights. The preamble to the section on state and domestic security asserts that objectives include protection of "the fundamental rights and freedoms of man and citizen;" and as well as fighting the insidious influence of foreign NGOs. Security services are also expected to suppress any "criminal assault" on human rights and freedoms and property. That section is followed by another dedicated to "improving Russian citizens' quality of life," which apparently entails "improving national human rights protection systems through the development of the judicial system and legislation."

These parts were all added after the March 25 meeting chaired by Medvedev, and they bear the unmistakable mark of his increasing portfolio if his self-consciously "liberal" initiatives (an unnamed member of the council told Kommersant that "we faithfully followed the directives given by the president, asserting the priority of human development and personality.").

That same source called the concept "quite democratic, and even, if you want, liberal." And there is little doubt that the admission that security "cannot be achieved by force alone" is to be welcomed in Russia. But its purpose seems to be entirely political. Assertions about the importance of human rights are quite different from addressing actual problems, and the language is as frustratingly vague as the rest of the document.

And if the president is hoping that such rhetoric will raise his stock amongst the liberal constituency at home and his critics abroad, he maybe mistaken. "Although there are some points connected to civil rights, they look like mere declarations," said Nikolai Petrov, an expert on domestic affairs at the liberal Moscow Carnegie Center think tank. In his opinion, the vagueness of the document, from the unclear order of priorities to the inclusion of human rights clauses, has quite a different cause.

"The initial idea to rewrite this strategy appeared after the Georgian War, and it was meant to reflect Russia's new role and position in the world. But immediately after it was announced that the working group should start this work, the economic crisis hit Russia," he said. "Now, no one knows where the country is going to be in six months time. So they had to make as declarative and avoid as much of the real sense as possible." [RussiaPro/13May2009] 

Section III - COMMENTARY

Protecting Spies Wasn't Meant to Protect Torture, by Bob Barr. In the mid-1970s I was a young analyst with the CIA. A friend then serving undercover as the station chief in a European country was gunned down by terrorists. His assassination followed unauthorized disclosure of his CIA identity by people opposed to American intelligence activities. Later spy scandals involving traitors Aldrich Ames, Robert Hanssen and others showed even more dramatically the devastating consequences of unauthorized disclosure of sensitive intelligence information.

This is the primary reason post-WW II era laws establishing the CIA provided extensive and unique authority for the CIA director to protect "intelligence sources and methods."

In the 21st century, our country's foreign intelligence capabilities are focused not against a major, adversary superpower such as the former Soviet Union, but against a variety of state and nonstate actors of more limited but still deadly capabilities. Clearly, however, the need for developing, using and maintaining effective "intelligence sources and methods" is just as critical now as it was in decades past.

Despite the broad and unique powers given the CIA chief, our government travels a very slippery slope when it allows those legal authorities to provide the excuse for covering up potential violations of the law. President Richard Nixon tried it in the 1970s when he and White House operatives employed the CIA as part of its Watergate cover up. The administration of George W. Bush elevated the defense to a whole new level.

Pleading "intelligence sources and methods" as a defense to charges of committing torture or other illegal acts should have no place in either our legal system or in the public policy arena. Using "sources and methods" as a shield to hide allegedly illegal acts abuses and cheapens an important, legitimate authority. This became evident during the Bush-Cheney administration when it refused even to acknowledge what everyone knew - that the National Security Agency was monitoring international phone calls to discover intelligence on al-Qaida operatives.

NSA exists to monitor, decrypt and analyze certain international communications of likely foreign intelligence value. Yet the Bush administration dogmatically refused to even acknowledge the obvious as part of its effort to defend against charges it was engaging in a far-reaching and illegal program of warrantless electronic eavesdropping on our citizens. Claiming that even acknowledging that the NSA engaged in electronic eavesdropping would offer our enemies invaluable knowledge about the "sources" (phone calls) and "methods" (intercepts) of our foreign intelligence capabilities, the Bush administration simply closed the door to any legitimate inquiry of whether it engaged in unlawful surveillance.

Likewise, when evidence surfaced that it had authorized and sanctioned the use of torture as a means of extracting intelligence from captured terrorism suspects, the Bush administration repeatedly refused to discuss or provide information on what precisely it was doing. The excuse for such stonewalling was the old "sources and methods" defense - that to allow any discussion of whether and how government employees tortured suspects would enhance the ability of other potential suspects to withstand application of such techniques in the future.

In other words, the government is telling us (and the world) that, "we won't discuss how we torture, because this would reduce the effectiveness of torture in the future, and all this therefore is protected against disclosure by the need to protect intelligence sources and methods."

And now we learn that former Vice President Dick Cheney wants certain of those torture reports and assessments made public after all. Why? To write a book and to show that the use of water-boarding and other "enhanced interrogation techniques" - even if unlawful - extracted worthwhile intelligence from suspects. For the prior administration at least, what constitutes an intelligence "source" or "method" depends more on the point attempted to be made than it does on a legitimate need to protect the names and lawful actions of undercover operatives. [Barr/AtlantaJournalConstitution/13May2009] 

What if Cheney's Right?, by Richard Cohen. Blogger Alert: I have written a column in defense of Dick Cheney. I know how upsetting this will be to some Cheney critics, and I count myself as one, who think - in respectful paraphrase of what Mary McCarthy said about Lillian Hellman - that everything he says is a lie, including the ands and the thes. Yet I have to wonder whether what he is saying now is the truth - i.e., torture works.

In some sense, this is an arcane point since the United States insists it will not torture anymore - not that, the Bush people quickly add, it ever did. Torture is a moral abomination, and President Obama is right to restate American opposition to it. But where I reserve a soup�on of doubt is over the question of whether "enhanced interrogation techniques" actually work. That they do not is a matter of absolute conviction among those on the political left, who seem to think that the CIA tortured suspected terrorists just for the hell of it.

Cheney, though, is adamant that the very measures that are now deemed illegal did work and that, furthermore, doing away with them has made the country less safe. Cheney said this most recently on Sunday, on CBS's "Face the Nation." "Those policies were responsible for saving lives," he told Bob Schieffer. In effect, Cheney poses a hard, hard question: Is it more immoral to torture than it is to fail to prevent the deaths of thousands?

Cheney is a one-man credibility gap. In the past, he has said, "We know they [the Iraqis] have biological and chemical weapons," when it turned out we knew nothing of the sort. He insisted that "the evidence is overwhelming" that al-Qaeda had been in high-level contact with Saddam Hussein's regime when the "evidence" was virtually nonexistent. And he repeatedly asserted that Iraq had a menacing nuclear weapons program. As a used-car dealer, he would have no return customers.

Still, every dog has his day, and Cheney is barking up a storm on the efficacy of what can colloquially be called torture. He says he knows of two CIA memos that support his contention that the harsh interrogation methods worked and that many lives were saved. "That's what's in those memos," he told Schieffer. They talk "specifically about different attack planning that was underway and how it was stopped."

Cheney says he once had the memos in his files and has since asked that they be released. He's got a point. After all, this is not merely some political catfight conducted by bloggers, although it is a bit of that, too. Inescapably, it is about life and death - not ideology, but people hurling themselves from the burning World Trade Center. If Cheney is right, then let the debate begin: What to do about enhanced interrogation methods? Should they be banned across the board, always and forever? Can we talk about what is and not just what ought to be?

In a similar vein, can we also find out what Nancy Pelosi knew and when she knew it? If she did indeed know about waterboarding back in 2003, that would hardly make her a war criminal. But if she knew and insists otherwise, that would make her one of those people who will not acknowledge that the immediate post-Sept. 11 atmosphere allowed for methods that now seem abhorrent. Certain Democratic politicians remind me of what Oscar Levant supposedly said of Doris Day: "I knew [her] before she was a virgin." They have no memory of who they used to be.

Back in my college days, there was much late-night discussion about the "free man" - not politically free, mind you, but free of bourgeois cultural restraints. (The once-important writer Jean Genet, a former petty criminal and prostitute, was often cited.) In political terms, Cheney has been a free man ever since he eschewed any presidential ambitions. He became the most impolitic of politicians and continues in that role, taking neither a vow of penitence nor a vow of silence in his vice presidential afterlife. He says the issues are too important for him to be, as is traditional, mum.

He is right about that. The run-up to the disastrous Iraq war was notable for its smothering lack of debate. That served us poorly then and it would serve us poorly now if people who know something about the utility, not to mention the morality, of enhanced interrogation techniques keep their mouths shut. The Obama administration ought to call Cheney's bluff, if it is that, and release the memos. If even a stopped clock is right twice a day, this could be Cheney's time.  [Cohen/WashingtonPost/12May2009]

Intelligence Under Siege: America's Spy Agencies Are Being Undermined. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's war with the CIA could not come at a worse time for America's beleaguered intelligence agencies. When the United States needs its intelligence arms the most - to combat terrorism, track Iran's nuclear-weapons program and fend off foreign espionage - they are under assault from many quarters.

The release of the "torture memos" was a major blow to intelligence-community morale, and on April 16, President Obama attempted to mitigate the damage by sending the CIA what its critics have disparaged as "the love letter." Mr. Obama praised the professionalism of the agency and noted that "this is a time for reflection, not retribution ... at a time of great challenges and disturbing disunity, nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past."

Mr. Obama pledged to the CIA that "we will protect all who acted reasonably and relied upon legal advice from the Department of Justice that their actions were lawful" and that "these individuals will not be prosecuted and that the government will stand by them." When White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel later stated that the no-prosecution pledge included those who devised the policies, Mr. Obama clarified the limits of reflection over retribution. "That is going to be more of a decision for the attorney general within the parameters of various laws," he said, generating fears of more disturbing disunity ahead.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has signaled that the Justice Department will cooperate with a suit brought in a Spanish court by four former Guantanamo Bay detainees claiming torture. "This is an administration that is determined to conduct itself by the rule of law," Mr. Holder explained in April, "and to the extent that we receive lawful requests from an appropriately created court, we would obviously respond to it."

Exactly how the United States will cooperate with this Spanish inquest is unclear, but a dangerous precedent could be set that would unleash scores of similar suits by any party in any part of the world that felt it had a grievance against the United States. The idea that foreign courts could render judgment on officially sanctioned actions taken by members of the U.S. intelligence community within U.S. territory is unconscionable. The notion that the Justice Department would be complicit in such proceedings is intolerable.

The covenant among the government, the people and our intelligence and national security professionals must be restored. We ask this select group of specialists to do things that, while legal, must be shielded from public scrutiny lest they be compromised and rendered ineffective. Congress is entrusted with the responsibility of oversight which itself must remain secret. When this critical process is polluted by politics, sensationalism and deceit, the wound must be opened and cleaned. We owe our struggling intelligence services nothing less. [WashingtonTimes/18May2009] 

Section IV - CAREERS, READINGS AND COMING EVENTS

Careers

Shee Atika Services (SAS) is looking for former intelligence officers to fill the role of Covert Action Officer for a computer wargame in McLean, VA,. Dates:   The overall period of performance will be 25 May 2009 to 10 June 2009.  The exercise is starting 31 May 2009 to 5 June 2009. Activity: computer wargame for JFCOM. Positions:   WMD SME, 3 each - IO positions, War Lord position and Covert Action: Individual that understands the concepts of Covert Action and the types of Covert Action activities likely to be carried out by the adversaries described in each scenario, to include Red support to insurgents. Clearance: SECRET or higher Pay & Allowances: about $250 per day plus travel and per diem IAW JTR rate Please send resumes in MS Word to: jwilliamson@sheeatikaservices.com   For more information explore: www.sheeatikaservices.com

Reading

KGB Material Released by Cold War Project. The Cold War International History Project has released the "Vassiliev Notebooks." The notebooks are an important new source of information on Soviet intelligence operations in the United States from 1930 to 1950. Though the KGB's archive remains closed, former KGB officer turned journalist Alexander Vassiliev was given the unique opportunity to spend two years poring over materials from the KGB archive taking detailed notes - including extended verbatim quotes - on some of the KGB's most sensitive files.

Though Vassiliev's access was not unfettered, the 1,115 pages of densely handwritten notes that he was able to take shed new and important light on such critical individuals and topics as Alger Hiss, the Rosenberg case, and "Enormous," the massive Soviet effort to gather intelligence on the Anglo-American atomic bomb project.

Alexander Vassiliev has donated his original copies of the handwritten notebooks to the Library of Congress with no restriction on access. They are available to researchers in the Manuscript Division. Electronic copies of the original notebooks, transcribed Russian versions, and translated English versions are available for download free of charge from the Cold War International History Project. [Slashdot/14May2009] http://slashdot.org/submission/1001293/KGB-Material-released-by-Cold-War-Project

COMING EVENTS

EVENTS IN COMING TWO MONTHS....

21 May 2009, 10 a.m. - Speaker TBA; 12:00 p.m. Panel 2: Hiss, Stone, and Counterintelligence Chair: G. Edward White; Eduard Mark: “In Re Alger Hiss: A Final Verdict from the Archive of the KGB.”; Max Holland: “Three Tales of I.F. Stone and the KGB: Kalugin, Venona, and the Notebooks”; John Fox: “What the Spiders Did: U.S. and Soviet Counterintelligence before the Cold War”; Comments by G. Edward White (U. VA Law), Bruce Craig (independent scholar)
Discussion
2:00 p.m. Panel 3: “Atomic and Technical Espionage”; Chair: Ronald Radosh; Steve Usdin: “The Rosenberg Ring: Industrial-Scale Technical and Atomic Espionage”; Greg Herken: “Target Enormoz: Soviet Atomic Espionage on the West Coast, 1942-1950”; Robert S. Norris: “George Koval, A New and Unusual Manhattan Project Spy”; Comments by Ronald Radosh (CUNY, emeritus), Barton Bernstein (Stanford U)
Discussion; 4:00 – Speaker TBA; 4:30 p.m. Concluding Panel; Chair: Mark Kramer - Panelists and Audience Discussion
TO ATTEND or FOR MORE INFORMATION: visit Cold War International History Project, Woodrow Wilson Center, One Woodrow Wilson Plaza, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, D.C. 20004-3027; Email: coldwar@wilsoncenter.org, Tel: 202/691-4110.
Reservations are not required. All meetings take place at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC. Please see the map and directions here. Allow time for routine security procedures. A photo ID is required for entry. To confirm time and place, contact Maria-Stella Gatzoulis on the day of the event: tel. (202) 691-4188. Check this page for the latest updates and notices.

21 May 2009 - Arlington, VA - The Defense Intelligence Forum meets to hear Provost, Defense Intelligence College -- Dr. Susan Studds The speaker will be Dr. Susan M. Studds, National Defense Intelligence College Provost, speaking on the Defense Intelligence College.  Dr. Studds joined the college from the National Defense University where she was a professor in the Information Resources Management. She was Deputy Director of Assessment, Accreditation, and Faculty Development at NDU and later became NDU Assistant Vice President and Acting Provost. She was on the executive committee of the Program for Accreditation of Joint Education and the Substantive Change Committee of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. She taught strategic leadership and decision making, education as a national security factor, and American Studies for International Fellows, a course that she established.  Dr. Studds has been Director of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities' National Retention Project and Director of its Center for Educational Opportunity and Achievement. She served as Special Assistant to the Provost at George Mason University.
Event occurs at the Alpine Restaurant, 4770 Lee Highway, Arlington, VA 22207. Pay at the door with a check for $29 per person payable to DIAA, Inc.  Social hour starts at 1130, lunch at 1200.  Make reservations for you and your guests by 14 May by email to diforum@verizon.net.  In your response, give your name and the names of your guests.  For each, choose chicken, veal, or salmon.  Include also telephone numbers and email addresses for you and your guests.  Pay with a check.  WE DO NOT TAKE CASH!

Friday, 22 May 2009, 7 pm to 8:45 pm - New York, NY - Robert Wallace, Former Director of CIA's Office of Technical Services Discusses SPYCRAFT at a New York Military Affairs Event. AFIO members are invited to meet Robert Wallace, former Director of CIA's Office of Technical Services as he discusses SPYCRAFT: The Secret History of the CIA's Spytechs from Communism to Al-Qaeda. Event takes place in Room 6-495, CUNY Graduate Center, Fifth Avenue at 34th St, New York City. NYMAS talks are free and open to the public. They are held on Friday evenings at the City University of New York Graduate Center, at 365 Fifth Avenue between 34th and 35th Streets from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. These Friday lectures are usually held on the 6th floor in Room 6-495, but confirmation of the room number should be obtained from the guard at the street-level entrance.
These talks are sponsored by the New York Military Affairs Symposium in conjunction with CUNY's Conference on History and Politics, Dr. George D. Schwab, Director. NYMAS is associated with the Society for Military History, Region 2.

Wednesday, 27 May 2009, 6:30 pm – Washington, D.C. - "Intelligence in Cyberspace" featuring Terry Gudaitis of Cyveillance [at the Spy Museum]. In the past, spycraft depended on trained operatives, cutting-edge technologies, expensive systems, and highly specialized devices to conduct operations and collect intelligence. The “enemy” today is able to carry out intelligence gathering and anonymous attacks from any cyber-café in the world. The Internet contains a vast pool of information about every government agency, private company, major corporation – and many individuals. The average user with no advanced skills can purchase just about anything online, communicate in a dozen ways – from anywhere, and for the most part, remain anonymous. Terry Gudaitis, as cyber intelligence director at Cyveillance, a firm responsible for the protection of a majority of Fortune 500 companies and 30 million global consumers, knows firsthand the enormous threat of this explosive growth in internet accessibility. Drawing on her background as a former operations officer and behavioral profiler at the CIA’s Counter Terrorist Center, Gudaitis will explore how the “enemy” is collecting information from the internet – and how they are using it to communicate, target people, case government facilities, and exploit assets. You may never log on as blithely again!
WHERE: International Spy Museum, 800 F St NW, Washington, DC, Gallery Place/Chinatown Metrorail Station
Tickets: $12.50 per person. To register: https://web.spymuseum.org/e-commerce/ItemList.aspx

Thursday, 28 May 2009; 12 noon – 1 pm – Washington, D.C. – "Hunting Eichmann: How a Band of Survivors and a Young Spy Agency Chased Down the World’s Most Notorious Nazi" - [at the Spy Museum]. For 15 years the hunt for Eichmann, architect of the mass murder of Europe’s Jews, stretched from war-ravaged Europe to the shores of Argentina. In the first complete account of this relentless Israeli spy mission, author Neal Bascomb gathers new information and interviews, tied together with declassified documents to tell the story of how the notorious Nazi was brought to justice. Join the author as he explores how the young Israeli spy agency, the Mossad, mounted the operation—dispatching operatives like Isser Harel and Zvi Aharoni on their mission to Argentina to capture and deliver Eichmann to judgment.
WHERE: International Spy Museum, 800 F St NW, Washington, DC, Gallery Place/Chinatown Metrorail Station
Free! No registration required! Join the author for an informal chat and book signing.

Tuesday, 2 June 2009, 8 a.m. -4 p.m. - Alexandria, VA - AFIO Members are invited to the CI Centre’s first ever Counterterrorism Course Preview Day

WHO: Supervisors; managers, decision makers and others to evaluate this training for their organizations
WHERE: DGMA Headquarters, 5650B General Washington Drive, Alexandria VA 22312
COST: Free; refreshments included
DETAILS: The CI Centre, a David G. Major Associates, Inc. (DGMA) company is pleased to announce the first Counterterrorism Courses Preview Day. This is for those interested in national security, who are interested in learning more about the threat and how to have their organizations expand and enhance their training programs. You will hear from the subject matter experts and professors, including Drs. Tawfik and Maha Hamid, USAR Major Stephen Coughlin, Brian Weidner, Clare Lopez, and David Major who teach in the following courses and others:
-361: The Global Jihadist Threat Doctrine
-560: Middle Eastern Intelligence Services and Terrorist Organizations
-268: Jihadi Strategies in Africa
-267: An Introduction to Hezbollah: A Top Terrorist Organization
RSVP Now: Adam Hahn at 703-642-7454 or adam.hahn@cicentre.com

Tuesday 2 June 2009, 6 p.m. - Nellis AFB, NV - The AFIO Las Vegas Chapter event features: The Development, Testing, and Operation of the U-2 and A-12 High Altitude Reconnaissance Programs at Nevada’s Groom Lake

Members of the Roadrunners Internationale will speak about the recently declassified CIA U-2 program at Taiwan; U-2 Project Aquatone at Groom Lake; the CIA A-12 Project Oxcart (which was the recently declassified CIA plane preceding the more commonly known Air Force SR-71) at Groom Lake and its operational phase; and Operation Black Shield at Kadena, Okinawa.
Their presentation will include a short video of the first flights of the U-2 and A-12 at Groom Lake, a PowerPoint presentation about the aircraft, and a large photo display of the aircraft test, evaluation, and operations. They will also recount their CIA recruitment, cover stories, living and working at Groom Lake, and the excitement of foreign missions. Their story was declassified a little over a year ago at the CIA’s 60th Anniversary. Location: Nellis Air Force Base Officers’ Club. (If no military ID, contact 702.295.0073 by May 25th for base entry information)

Wednesday, 3 June 2009; 6:30 pm – Washington, D.C. – Pakistan Today: The ISI, India, and What the Future Holds [at Spy Museum].
With the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai, India, the tense relationship between Pakistan and its eastern neighbor was again headline news. Pakistani government officials condemned the attack, but the incident raised questions again about links between the Pakistani Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Islamic terror networks. How does the history of the ISI— and its partnership with the CIA during the 1980s—affect its actions and worldview? How do the United States and Pakistan look on their partnership in today’s circumstances? These pressing questions will be considered by: Shuja Nawaz, director, South Asia Center at the Atlantic Council of the United States, author of Crossed Swords: Pakistan, Its Army, and the Wars Within; Bruce Riedel, senior fellow, foreign policy, Saban Center for Middle East Policy, Brookings Institution, former CIA officer and senior advisor to three U.S. presidents on Middle East and South Asian issues; and Ambassador Teresita Schaffer, the director of the South Asia Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies, who has written extensively and testified before Congress on Pakistani issues.
WHERE: International Spy Museum, 800 F St NW, Washington, DC, Gallery Place/Chinatown Metrorail Station
Tickets: $15 per person. To register: https://web.spymuseum.org/e-commerce/ItemList.aspx

Monday, 8 June 2009 - Newport News, VA - The AFIO Norman Forde Hampton Roads Chapter is planning a meeting and address by member Dr. Larry Wortzel on U.S.-China relations. Dr. Larry M. Wortzel, 1988 - 1990 U.S. ARMY ATTACH� U.S. EMBASSY, BEIJING, PRESIDENT, ASIA STRATEGIES AND RISKS, LLC., COMMISSIONER, U.S. - CHINA ECONOMIC AND SECURITY REVIEW COMMISSION, WASHINGTON , D.C. The presentation will be followed by a reception. Guests are welcome. Please spread the word and bring friends!. Questions to Melissa at MWSaunders@cox.net or call her at 757-897-6268

13 June 2009 - Boston, MA - AFIO Boston Pops Committee commemorates the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing. Join AFIO Boston-based members at Symphony Hall for a special Boston Pops Concert celebrating our nation’s triumphant achievement. Historic footage of the lunar landing provided by NASA will accompany a program of stirring patriotic music including Holst’s The Planets. Honor one of America’s proudest moments in space exploration with a spectacular Pops concert.  The AFIO Pops Committee has relocated the event back to Boston for our seventh annual Pops social event. Conductor Keith Lockhart will lead the Pops at Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Avenue Boston, MA 02115. Join other AFIO members and friends in the Hatch Room lounge located behind the orchestra level for a social hour before the performance begins. For tickets, call Symphony Hall Charge at 888-266-1200 or online at www.bso.org. Tickets sell from $18.00 to $85.00 and are now on sale.  After purchasing your tickets, please contact Gary at wassinmaryland@aol.com  so I can add your name to the list to look for at the 1 hour social prior to the concert. Ticket prices for attending this concert does not include a gift to AFIO however the Association of Former Intelligence Officers relies greatly upon the generosity of members, corporations, foundations, and the general public who understand and wish to encourage sound intelligence policy and education in the United States.  These gifts allow AFIO and its chapters to carry out important activities in the areas of education, advocacy, seminars, publications, and conferences. Please help by making a financial donation to AFIO. Tax receipts will be issued for donations of $100 or more (does not include Pops ticket cost).  All gifts to AFIO are tax deductible.  AFIO is an IRS approved 501(c)(3) charity. We request this be done separately if you are able to contribute to AFIO. Gifts may be made here.

Sunday, 14 June 2009, 4:00pm - St. Charles, IL - AFIO Midwest Chapter has a two speaker meeting. We will have two speakers do a combined presentation. One speaker is a former Lt. Col USAF who was Chief of Counter Intelligence and Deputy District Commander in Ankara, Turkey (81-82) who was assigned to Office of Special Investigations. He is now currently Director of Security at Northrup Grumman in Rolling Meadows, IL. The other is a former FBI Special Agent. Both will discuss the interrelationships amongst the US intelligence agencies. St. Charles Place Restaurant 2550 E. Main Street, St. Charles, IL. Telephone number 1-630-377-3333. For more information regarding meals and to confirm your attendance, please contact Angelo Di Liberti ASAP at 847-931-4184.

25 June 2009 - Los Angeles, CA - AFIO L.A. Area Meeting Notice to hear Sheriff Jeff Blatt. Jeffrey J. Blatt, deputy sheriff (res) with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, assigned to the Emergency Operations Bureau, will address the on-going militant Islamic insurgency in Southern Thailand. Deputy Blatt will review the historic causes of the insurgency, ideology, recruitment, tactics and attacks, Thai counterinsurgency operations, as well as the potential for regional escalation. Deputy Blatt is the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department's liaison on the ground in South East and South Asia.
Meeting will take place 6/25/09 at 12:30 PM on the campus of Loyola Marymount University in the Hilton Business building with lunch provided for $15, payable at the door. Please RSVP via email, by 6/19/2009 for your attendance: AFIO_LA@yahoo.com

Saturday, 27 June 2009 - Northampton, MA - AFIO New England hosts Summer Meeting to hear Ilana Freedman on counterterrorism.
Our speaker will be Ilana Freedman, the CEO & Founder of Gerard Group International, an internationally respected expert in counter-terrorism preparedness. She is a highly regarded analyst and a prolific writer. She has framed the mission at the Gerard Group to provide leading edge programs to prepare and protect American interests and those of its friends and allies from the impact of terrorist attacks. She has put together a team of leaders in the field from around the globe to provide the blue-ribbon service that defines the Gerard Group. Her interactive presentation will cover Intelligence issues facing the US and the Globe. Please join us for a most interesting presentation.
Location: This 2009 Summer meeting will be held at the Hotel Northampton, 36 King St, Northampton, MA 01060. A full description of services as well as directions to the hotel, are available on-line at http://www.hotelnorthampton.com.
Our Saturday schedule is as follows 1100 - 1200 Gathering & Registration, 1200 Luncheon followed by our Keynote Speaker with adjournment at 1430.
Cost: Paid in advance the cost of the luncheon is $20 per person. Unsold seats will be available at the door for $25 each. This registration form only-not the announcement-should accompany your check made payable to AFIO/NE and received by June 17th.
Address questions to afionechapter@gmail.com Or send registration to Mr. Arthur Hulnick, 216 Summit Avenue # E102, Brookline, MA 02446

7 July 2009, 07:30 - 08:45 a.m. -- Arlington, VA -- The National Intelligence Education Foundation holds breakfast meeting featuring LTG John F. Kimmons USA, Chief of Intel Staff/ODNI

This is a Post-Graduate breakfast lecture. Details and registration at: http://www.niefoundation.org/events/event_details.asp?id=62233

20 - 24 July 2009 - Alexandria, VA - Espionage Investigations and Interviewing Techniques - Course 518
This course is designed to provide an introduction to the complexities of and the decision making processes associated with investigating and prosecuting espionage cases in the United States in the 21st Century.
The course examines the psychology of espionage and the basis for opening espionage investigations. It explains the evolution of key legal and policy decisions associated with prosecuting espionage cases.
The course provides tools for conducting successful counterintelligence interviews.
These tools include a self assessment of the interviewer's behavioral skills; counterintelligence interviewing techniques; detecting deception during interviews; questioning techniques; and practical exercises in interviewing espionage suspects.
This course provides espionage investigators in the US national security community a deeper understanding of the status of counterespionage today, and their individual roles in the protection of our nation's most vital secrets, plans, and programs. (5 days)

AGENDA

Monday, 20 July 2009, 8:00a-4:00p - Alexandria, VA - Day 1 of 5 - at the CI Centre, Professor Connie Allen
Seminar Introduction and Objectives; The Psychology of Espionage; Anatomy of Espionage; Anatomy of a Sting

Tuesday, 21 July 2009, 8:00a-4:00p - Alexandria, VA - Day 2 of 5 - CI Centre Professors John Martin and Connie Allen
Legal Issues: Understanding past espionage cases which established case law for espionage violations and how these individuals have been exposed; Corroboration: Kampiles; Agent of a foreign power: 1941 case; How long can you talk with a suspect: Pelton; The John Walker case and others; Failures and mistakes encountered during espionage investigations: Cook, Smith, and Koecher cases

Wednesday, 22 July 2009, 8:00a-11:00a - Alexandria, VA - Day 3 of 5 - CI Centre Professor Tawfik Hamid Interviewing an Islamist Terrorist/Extremist Who Belongs to a Jihadist Group or Al-Qaeda Style Organization;

11:00a-4:00p CI Centre Professor Sue Adams: Counterintelligence Interviewing Techniques; Self Assessment for Interviewers - DISC Behavioral Styles; DISC Behavioral Styles and CI Interviewing Techniques: Rapport Building Skills

Thursday, 23 July 2009, 8:00a-4:00p - Alexandria, VA - Day 4 of 5 - CI Centre Professor Sue Adams
Detecting Deception During Interviews: Nonverbal Clues to Deception, Verbal Clues to Deception; Deception and Questioning Techniques

Friday, 24 July 2009, 8:00a-4:00p - Alexandria, VA - Day 5 of 5 - CI Centre Professor Sue Adams
8:00a-4:00p Interviewing Suspects: Theme Development for Espionage Suspects; Interview Plans: Interviewing Suspects; Practical Exercises

TO REGISTER FOR THIS SPECIAL COURSE: A client has allowed us to open up available seats to individuals who hold a current SECRET clearance to attend their running of this course the week of 20-24 July 2009 at the CI Centre in Alexandria, VA. The cost of this five-day course for government attendees is $2,618.70 per person; for corporate attendees is $3,045 per person. To register, fill out this form, or contact Adam Hahn at 703-642-7454.

13-16 October 2009 - Las Vegas, NV - AFIO National Symposium - Nellis AFB, Creech AFB. Details and registration forthcoming.

For Additional Events two+ months or greater....view our online Calendar of Events

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